The Egyptian Doctors Syndicate condemned the mistreatment of Egyptian doctors working abroad, especially in Saudi Arabia, in a press conference held on Saturday by the syndicate's Freedoms Committee at Dar al-Hekma.
The committee called on the Saudi authorities to improve their treatment of Egyptian doctors swiftly, and to give them financial and human rights.
The freedoms committee presented a number of injustices suffered by Egyptian doctors in Saudi Arabia, including persecution by sponsors (having a Saudi sponsor is necessary to obtain a business visa to enter the country), non-payment of dues, fabrication of criminal charges and imprisonment without charge.
Hafez Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian doctor recently released from a Saudi prison, said that after performing Hajj in 2011, he witnessed a member of the Saudi military abuse a 77-year-old Egyptian pilgrim. When he went to the pilgrim's aid, the doctor said, he was attacked by the soldier, 10 of his colleagues and other Saudi citizens.
Abdel Fattah said he was beaten with shoes, had ribs and his nose broken, and got a blood clot that became infected. He said he obtained a medical report to proved his injuries.
He said he bled in the street for over an hour, and was then taken via a hospital to prison, where he remained for four days with iron chains on his feet.
Abdel Fattah said that were it not for the media, which brought attention to his plight, and the support of Egypt's Doctors Syndicate, he would still be in custody.
Abdel Fattah said there are other Egyptians in Saudi prisons who have not been charged with any crime.
He said the investigator told him: "You want to create a revolution in Saudi Arabia as in Egypt, and your act had revolutionary motives, not religious ones."
Doctor Abdallah al-Keriouny of the Freedoms Committee condemned the failure of Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with the violations committed against Egyptian doctors abroad.
He called for developing a strategy to protect the rights of Egyptian doctors, saying the syndicate has had to ask the ministry at least five times recently to intervene in such cases.
